Hamilton Rugby Club's Chris Stannage award SRU's Try of the Season

At the sport’s governing body’s awards dinner at Murrayfield last Friday, Chris’ touchdown against West of Scotland at Burnbrae back in September made a final shortlist of three from all of the tries of the month throughout the season.

At the sport’s governing body’s awards dinner at Murrayfield last Friday, Chris’ touchdown against West of Scotland at Burnbrae back in September made a final shortlist of three from all of the tries of the month throughout the season.

From a list of eight tries of the month, three finalists were selected by an internet poll of rugby fans.

And when former Hamilton Grammar pupil Stannage was called forward to collect the Frank Coutts Memorial Award, it provided a proud moment for him and dad Bruce, who joined him at the awards dinner in Edinburgh.

He said: “I knew at the time that it was a pretty special try, there were something like nine passes involved and John Selfridge, Richard Maxton and I each handled twice in an exciting blind-side break before I got over the line.

“That was back in the autumn, when we had just been promoted and opposition teams didn’t know how good we were when we got the ball wide.

“We played some great rugby on the firm pitches then, and managed to finish in the top four of Premier Division Two, guaranteeing that we will be in the new, smaller, Premier Division Two next season.”

Meanwhile, Bulls lock Jonny Gray was last month named as one of two the most promising talents in Scottish Rugby, after being named as a recipient of this season’s prestigious John Macphail Scholarship.

Gray and Edinburgh Rugby stand-off Gregor Hunter are part-way through an 18-week spell in Christchurch, New Zealand, playing for local clubs and benefiting from high-end facilities and coaching offered by the Canterbury RFU International High Performance Unit.

Gray also recently signed a two-year Elite Development contract with Glasgow Warriors, committing him to the club until 2014.

Gray said: “It’s a massive honour to be offered these two development opportunities at the same time and I’m very grateful to be given the chance to take my rugby forward.”